“. . . Time has grown up on its own without me . . .” (Yousef El Qedra)

Palestinian youths in Aida refugee camp list the names of the children killed in the Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip, on July 28, 2014. (Photo: Agence France Presse/Musa al-Shaer, File)

❶ PMO: Israel acted ‘above the law’ in killing of Gazan children
❷ Israeli forces level lands in southeastern Gaza Strip
❸ Israel’s new political and military offensive
❹ Billionaire donor using British Council to combat Israel boycott
❺ Analysis: TOO DANGEROUS TO PLAY: THE WEST BANK CHILDREN SHOT DEAD BY ISRAELI SOLDIERS
❻ Poetry by Yousef El Qedra

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❶ PMO: ISRAEL ACTED ‘ABOVE THE LAW’ IN KILLING OF GAZAN CHILDRENMA’AN NEWS AGENCY
March 15, 2016
The Palestinian Prime Minister’s office on Tuesday slammed Israel for “acting above the law” and called on the international community to hold Israel accountable for the deaths of two children killed in an airstrike on Gaza last week. . . .
___Addressing the incident, Jamal Dajani, Director of Strategic Communications and Media for Prime Minister Hamdallah said: “Israel continues to act above the law and murder children.”
___”Israeli leaders have blood on their hands, how do they justify the killing of innocent children?” Dajani said. MORE . . .

❷ ISRAELI FORCES LEVEL LANDS IN SOUTHEASTERN GAZA STRIPMA’AN NEWS AGENCY
15 Mar. 2016
Israeli bulldozers on Tuesday entered the Palestinian side of the Gaza borderline under military protection near Khuzza village in the southeastern Gaza Strip.
___Witnesses told Ma’an that five bulldozers stormed an agricultural area east of Khuzza and leveled lands. No gunfire or injuries were reported.
___Israeli military forces routinely enter the Gaza Strip near the “buffer zone” which lies on the borderline between the besieged enclave and Israel. MORE . . .

❸ ISRAEL’S NEW POLITICAL AND MILITARY OFFENSIVEALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER (AIC)
14 Mar. 2016
A 6-year-old girl and her 10-year-old brother were killed near the town of Beit Lahiya . . . in their house at the time of the airstrike.
___The strike is part of a new Israeli political and military offensive against Palestinians that includes incursions into areas controlled by the Palestinian government, closing media outlets and negotiating with foreign governments to increase the international isolation of the West Bank city of Ramallah.
___On Friday, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, successfully urged the French President, Francois Hollande, to shut down Al Aqsa TV broadcasts on French satellite provider Eutelsat . . . . MORE . . .

❹ BILLIONAIRE DONOR USING BRITISH COUNCIL TO COMBAT ISRAEL BOYCOTTTHE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
Hilary Aked
14 Mar. 2016
New documents seen by The Electronic Intifada . . . show that the British Council has been quietly working to thwart the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement in support of Palestinian rights.
___The revelations about the government-funded program come as the UK attempts to ban local government from boycotting companies complicit in Israeli human rights abuses.
___. . . Nathan Kirsh, a billionaire businessman profiting directly from Israel’s wall in the occupied West Bank, is a donor to the British Council’s little-known anti-boycott project.
___The British Council is a quasi-governmental body which describes itself as making an important “contribution to UK soft power.” It gets approximately 20 percent of its funding from the UK Foreign Office. MORE . . .

Luaiy al-Baw said his nephew Haitham who was shot in the back and killed by an Israeli soldier was more interested in animals and football than politics (Photo: Abed al-Qaisi)

❺ ANALYSIS: TOO DANGEROUS TO PLAY: THE WEST BANK CHILDREN SHOT DEAD BY ISRAELI SOLDIERSMIDDLE EAST EYE
Sheren Khalel
13 Mar. 2016
Parents in the occupied West Bank say they can no longer allow their children to play outside because of fears that they could be shot dead by Israeli forces.
___A report published this month by a children’s rights group said that 41 children had been shot dead during six months of upheaval in which Israeli forces have often responded with lethal force to scores of stabbing and shooting attacks by Palestinians.
___Nasreen al-Baw, the mother of 14-year-old Haitham al-Baw who was killed by Israeli soldiers on 5 February, told Middle East Eye that her son had died instantly after being shot in the back while playing on a hillside with his cousin and another teenager and his two new dogs. MORE . . .

“I HAVE NO HOME,” BY YOUSEF EL QEDRA

I saw clouds running away from the hurt.
I have no language.
Its weight is lighter than a feather.
The quill does not write.
The ink of the spirit burns on the shore of meaning.
The clouds are tears, filled with escape and lacking definition.
A cloud realizes the beauty she forms—
beauty which contains all good things,
for whom trees, gardens, and tired young women wait.

I have no home.
I have a night overripe with sweats caused by numbness all over.
Time has grown up on its own without me.
In my dream, I asked him what he looks like.
My small defeats answered me.
So I asked him again, What did he mean?
Then I found myself suspended in nothingness,
Stretched like a string that doesn’t belong to an instrument.
The wind played me. So did irresistible gravity.
I was a run of lost notes that have a sad, strong desire to live.
―Translated by Yasmin Snounu and Edward Morin

Yousef El Qedra is a young poet and playwright living in Gaza. He has his BA degree in Arabic Literature from Azhar University, Gaza. Since 2006 he has worked as a project coordinator of theater and youth groups for the Cultural Free Thought Association in Gaza City. He has written several books and plays and published four volumes of poetry, translated into French and Spanish.
From BEFORE THERE IS NOWHERE TO STAND: PALESTINE ISRAEL POETS RESPOND TO THE STRUGGLE. Ed. By Joan Dobbie and Grace Beeler. Sandpoint ID: Lost Horse Press, 2012.Available from Amazon.